In the middle of his speech on Freedom Day, President Cyril Ramaphosa told the nation that one of the successes of the ANC government, and therefore another reason to celebrate the dawn of democracy, is the disbursement of social grants.
He appeared earnest in his motivation. “In democratic SA, social grants provide a lifeline and source of income to millions, 18-million indigent people every month. If we add the 11-million (who receive) R350, we are talking about almost about 30-million South Africans who get grants every month from this government,” said Ramaphosa.
He included this as part of the answer to what he said many on Freedom Day would ask. “Many people today will be saying: ‘What is this freedom worth?’ Yes, they are right to ask themselves that question.”
Now, despite the noise levels in our country, and despite the so-called nine wasted years, I believe much has been accomplished — though much more could have been.
It is an attempt by the ruling party to create a veneer of success out of what is essentially the management of the poverty of millions.
But I do not think, when we rattle out a list of accomplishments, that list ought to include the massive number of South Africans who receive social security grants. I am certain these grants stand between many and sheer food poverty. And having nothing to eat is traumatic, unleashes depression and gnaws away at people’s dignity. In short, there can be no doubt about the importance of social security grants.
That said, the disbursements of grants is a necessity, not an accomplishment. In other words, while it is important, it is not something to be proud of. It is, in my book, the bare minimum.
Our focus ought to be how to get grant recipients into meaningful jobs. The government’s test ought to be its ability to run an economy that creates jobs, that gets people off the social grant lists and into meaningful economic participation.
Therefore, when a president, on the occasion of Freedom Day, lists as one of the country’s achievements people’s dependability on the state, he is, in fact, celebrating a low bar. Not that it is surprising, but it’s not to be countenanced.
In a country like ours, grant recipients are an important constituency, even if it is one often taken for granted and remembered just ahead of elections. What is certain though is that whichever party has intentions to lead the country can ill afford ignoring this constituency.
Even opposition parties spend inordinate amounts of time on messaging around grants. On Wednesday, DA leader John Steenhuisen told residents of Umzimvubu in the Eastern Cape: “There are people that lie and say the DA will take away their grants (if it comes to power). Well, I am here to tell you today that not only will we not take away the grants, but we will also pay them better and we will pay more.”
Decoded, this means the DA not only worries about how it comes across to this grant-dependent constituency, it is also a constituency that will be better taken care of by a DA administration which is prepared to pay more than the ANC does. The desperation to appeal to this constituency is obvious.
EFF leader Julius Malema too told party faithful in Mamelodi in Tshwane that the R350 they got from government was insufficient. He also argued, correctly, that graduates should receive government grants. The modalities around this can be debated, but what is clear is he knows not to mess around with the grant-receiving constituency.
And so, the comments by the president are to be seen in this light. It is an attempt by the ruling party to create a veneer of success out of what is essentially the management of the poverty of millions.
To be clear, the grants are necessary given the vagaries of unemployment and inequality in our country.
In the end though, grants by their nature are meant to help recipients survive, to live until the next payout. They assuage the pain. They never remove the pain. We must not be a country that celebrates that millions of people who should be working and contributing to economic activity in our country, are passive recipients of grants. What we should celebrate is how many people who used to be on grants have moved on to meaningful jobs, obviating the need for grants in their lives, thus creating space for others to receive grants. That is a story worth telling on Freedom Day, a story of progress, of hope.
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